Monday, October 20, 2014

Author Tomás Melendo, gave the opening speech at the "Family as a Social Paradigm"Congress in Europe back in 2008. In his speech entitled "Family, Primordial Place of Happiness" he, very interestingly, rejected the idea that the family is the cell of the society. His argument was that the cell is a part of an organism and is subordinated to it, so the wellness of the organism is above the priorities of the cell and the the family then, by that logic, is subordinated to society.

For Mr. Melendo, the family has its own sovereignty and it can't be subordinated to any other association; it is the other way around: society should be subordinated to the well-being of the family. He also posed the idea that if each person is not considered as an absolute value, then there is no reason to prevent its extinction. If the dignity of each person does not come first, then he could care less if the society turns into a chaos.

The family is fundamental and it has to be defended and supported because it provides happiness. If a family approaches what it is supposed to be, something that depends 99.9% on each member of the family - each one of us - then it will always provide happiness to its members. Think about it, the change begins within me, within my family, acting responsibly, improving myself with education, instilling good virtues and values to provoke a change in the world. Family first!